Jerry Lewis, real name Joseph Levitch, was born to parents of Russian-Jewish descent on 16 March 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, USA. Although Jerry was initially known for working in a comedy duo along with Dean Martin, his partner for a decade, Lewis was also an actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. Jerry passed away in 2017.
So just how how rich was Jerry Lewis? Sources estimate that Jerry had a net worth of $50 million, which he has managed to save during his multi-talented career in the entertainment industry, which spanned spanned over 70 years.
Jerry Lewis Net Worth $50 Million
It is certainly true that Jerry inherited his talent from his father Daniel Levitch, known as Danny Lewis, a famous actor and performer in his own right. Rae Lewis was Jerry`s mom, a piano player for New York City radio station WOR, and Danny`s music director, too. Jerry Lewis started performing at a early age: he was five years old when he sang “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” in Borscht Bet, New York`s nightclub in the Catskill Mountains. When Jerry was 15 years old, he left high school and decided to seek a career in performing. A comedy routine called Record Act was founded, which focused on miming and mouthing the lyrics of various well known songs. However, at first it did not go well, and Jerry was forced to think of something new to attract the audience, but it did start to build Jerry Lewis’ net worth.
He met his future comedy partner Dean Martin in 1945 when Dean was known as a singer. They started working together and developing a comedy project, showing up at nightclubs, including eventually the famous Copacabana in New York City. The duo was very successful, as within a couple of years the partners earnings rose from less that $200 per week to $30,000 at the Copacabana, which obviously added considerably to Jerry Lewis’ net worth. They went on to appear in almost 20 films together, with Jerry developing slapstick to Martin’s straight character.
After splitting from Martin in 1956, Jerry Lewis launched a solo career including singing, releasing single “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” and “It all Depends on You”, as well as an album entitled “Jerry Lewis Just Sings”. Although these were successful, Jerry was more interested in films, and was soon producing and directing, as well as acting, including introducing new techniques the most important of which became video assist. Popular films over a period of more than 15 years included “The Delicate Delinquent”, “Rock-A-Bye Baby”, “The Geisha Boy”, “Cinderfella”, “The Bellboy”, and “The Nutty Professor” among almost 50, several of which he directed, produced and/or wrote, remaining active and popular to his last appearance in “Max Rose” in 2016.
Of interest is that Jerry Lewis taught a film directing class at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for a number of years, where his students included future famous directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
What is also significant is that Jerry Lewis received many awards, to mention just a few: BAFTA (1983), Goldene Kamera Honorary Award (2005), and Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2011), the French Chevalier, Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, and American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, among many others.
Jerry Lewis further increased his net worth with incomes from publishing a few books, too: The Total Film-Maker (1971), Jerry Lewis: In Person (1982), and Dean & Me (A Love Story) published in 2005 along with James Kaplan.
In his personal life, Lewis was married to Patti Palmer from 1944 to 1982, during this time the couple welcomed six sons, one of them being adopted. Later, Lewis married SanDee Pitnick in 1983 and they adopted a daughter. Despite a number of health concerns, including heart attacks, Jerry has been a long-time supporter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, including hosting an annual telethon. Jerry died of natural causes on 20 August 2017 at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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